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Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Information
Birth name Céline Marie Claudette Dion
Born March 30, 1968
Birth place Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada
Genres Pop, dance pop, soft rock, pop rock, R&B
Occupation(s) Singer, businesswoman, composer, actress
Instruments Vocals, piano
Labels CBS, Epic, Columbia, 550

Céline Marie Claudette Dion is a Canadian singer, songwriter, businesswoman and occasional actress. She is one of the best-selling recording artists of all-time.

Relationship with Adele[]

Dion is a self-proclaimed Adele fan. She has praised Adele on numerous occasions, and has covered both “Rolling in the Deep” and “Hello” at live shows in the past. In 2013, Dion said, “I love everything about Adele.“ [1] In 2017, Dion presented Adele her Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “Hello.”[1][2] Dion has also called Adele one of the best singers of her generation on numerous occasions.[3]

Likewise, Adele has cited Dion as one of her favorite musical artists. She was once given an Andy Warhol-inspired painting of Céline Dion after telling an interviewer she was a huge fan of hers.[4]

In 2018, Adele visited Las Vegas to attend one of Dion’s shows, later posting on Instagram and praising Dion as a “queen.”[5] In 2019, Adele attended Dion’s concert at Hyde Park in London.[6]

During Adele’s “73 Questions” segment with Vogue in 2021, Adele revealed her proudest possession to be a framed piece of chewing gum gifted to her by James Corden that once belonged to Dion. She explained, “James Corden, who’s a friend of mine but also does Carpool Karaoke, which I did, he did it with her and knew how much of a fan of hers I was. He made her spit her gum into a piece of paper and framed it for me.”[7] In the same interview, she called Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” one of her favorite songs to sing privately.

Daniel Merriweather controversy[]

In 2012, Dion announced that her upcoming album would be titled Water and a Flame (although she later changed the title to Loved Me Back to Life) and will contain a cover of the song of the same name, performed by Adele and Daniel Merriweather originally. A friend of Daniel Merriweather's by the name of Samantha Ronson tweeted to Daniel after Celine Dion appeared on Katie Couric's self-titled television show and discussed the new album and the album's title track. Ronson noticed dthat Celine Dion had wrongfully given Adele credit for writing the song and did not give Merriweather or Eg White credit.

Merriweather responded to the controversy in a Facebook post, stating:

It is astounding that Celine Dion tries to pass off lyrics that I wrote as her own. Now, if I had written the song for her, it wouldn`t bother me so much, but `Water and a Flame` is a very personal song, that I wrote right after a break up I was going through and is one of my personal favourite songs on my album `Love & War`. This song has every ounce of my heartache and pain in it and she pretends as if she wrote it herself. Don`t get me wrong, I am genuinely flattered that anyone would want to cover one of my songs, but there is an age old etiquette amongst artists that one gives credit where credit is due. Thank you Celine Dion for singing my song, but if you had seen even half of what I have seen in my life time, you wouldn`t be able to get out of bed in the morning let alone sing, so just be mindful of the fact that songs are a connection to the ether, and an insight to our inner most thoughts and feelings and for some of us it may be all we will ever have.[8]

Dion's management responded to the claims in a post on her official website, callng them "grossly inaccurate" and "hurtful." They further added:

Daniel Merriweather’s comments originated from Celine's one appearance on Katie Couric a few months ago when she played a portion of "Water And A Flame" during an in-studio interview. Before playing the song, Katie asks Celine about her "new favorite artist", Adele, and Celine tells Katie how much she loves Adele. Celine continues by talking about "Water And A Flame"....about how much she loves it....and how it's a bit different from what she's used to singing. She doesn't mention anything about who wrote the song. Despite the headlines that have emerged from Daniel's publicity, Celine certainly doesn't claim in any way whatsoever that she wrote the song. While we can understand Daniel's disappointment by not having his name mentioned during Katie Couric’s interview, it's rather unfair to Celine to be on the receiving end of the many disparaging comments that have now become public.

Throughout Celine’s 32 year career she has always been very vocal about sharing the credit for her successes. She has been very vocal about the fact that she does not write her own songs...and that she is fortunate to have wonderful and talented writers to provide these gifts to her. For her to be accused of "stealing" a song is not only grossly inaccurate, but also very hurtful. During the thousands of interviews that she's given over the years, it's often that she will not mention the names of the writers involved. It's something that may not come up a lot in the interviews. That said, when a Celine Dion album is released, we always include complete and accurate writer credits in an updated bio, and of course, inside the CD packaging. Celine's new English album will be released worldwide this Fall. We are very excited about this new album, and we hope to have great success with it....and great success for all those who have contributed.

She loves Daniel Merriweather and Eg White’s song so much, and would never want to do any harm to them....nor take away anything from them....in fact, the opposite would be true.

We hope this clears up any misconceptions regarding Celine's intentions.[9]

Merriweather replied to this in another Facebook post, saying:

In hindsight, I was wrong to say that Celine 'stole' my song, from a songwriting point of view this is not the case at all ... It turns out that she didn't realise that Water and a Flame was my song from my album Love & War, instead she thought it was an Adele song.

She should've just done her homework before she decided to cover my song ... name her album after it ... and then publicly imply credit to the featured act on the song (Adele).

I get that Adele is a major artist and that the association helps her sell albums, but Adele is my friend; and she guested on my song, simple and plain, and that should've been acknowledged before Celine decided to rewrite history.[10]

References[]

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